Abstract
The contributions to this special issue arose from the symposium “Postcolonial Environments” at the University of Manchester in January 2014. This event marked the start of a continuing dialogue, resulting in both this special issue and the formation of the Northern Postcolonial Network (NPN) (www.northernpostcolonialnetwork.com). The network supports knowledge exchange amongst researchers working on postcolonial topics in the North of the UK and is committed to facilitating conversations between academics, students, charities and other non-academic partners and the wider public.
The three thematic areas of this special issue — animals, ecologies, localities — intersect in surprising and complementary ways. Collectively, the contributions demand new confluences in both methodological approach and subject matter to address the complexities of the world today. Connections between gorilla tourism and the Rwandan genocide, the postcolonial child and world ecology, and “water wars” and poetry, for example, may not seem immediately obvious. Yet, these imaginative combinations provide a telling analysis of the political and ecological struggles we face in the twenty-first century.
The articles and interviews work to show how the specifics of the local often resonate on a global scale; destruction of animal and plant populations, environmental degradation and disaster, urban experiences of settler colonialism, global tourism, and national heritage cannot be separated from the traditional dimensions of postcolonial studies that focus on the dynamics of nation, race, class, and identity. Indeed, these long-established concerns of the field are expanded, reorientated and challenged by the revitalizing engagements with ecocriticism, trauma studies, world-systems theory, and post-humanism offered by our contributors. This is not to suggest that the customary preoccupations of postcolonialism are no longer relevant, but that these new convergences represent the heterogeneity of a field in which scholars are responding to a wide range of urgent contemporary themes.
The diverse ways in which these interests are addressed in this issue point to a fresh impetus in postcolonial studies that is showcased by the critical and dedicated work of the Journal of Commonwealth Literature, and is propelled by conversations and exchanges that will continue to take place within the forum of forthcoming Northern Postcolonial Network events.
We hope you enjoy reading the special issue, as we have had great pleasure working with the contributors and each other. We would also like to extend our gratitude to Claire Chambers, Rachael Gilmour, Bob McKay, John McLeod, John Miller, Pablo Mukherjee, Anastasia Valassopoulos, and Susan Watkins for their guidance and support. Finally, we would like to thank ArtsMethods Manchester, ASLE-UKI, and the Postcolonial Studies Association for funding the January 2014 symposium.